Hershtynovich Hits .737 As No. 1 LBSU Sweeps No. 7 CSUN

Wednesday, March 5

Northridge, Calif.

6:00 p.m.

Long Beach State University

15-0,1-0Big West

CSUN

13-3,0-1Big West

Long Beach St.

CSUN

3/5/2025 7:59:00 PM | Men's Volleyball

Box Score

Long Beach State hits .530 as a team against the Matadors

By: Matt Turk, Associate Athletic Communications Director

NORTHRIDGE, Calif.--Daniil Hershtynovich hit .737 as No. 1 Long Beach State defeated No. 7 CSUN 3-0 in the Big West Men's Volleyball opener for both teams Wednesday night at Premier America Credit Union Arena.

Tied at six, the Matadors mounted a 4-1 charge to go up 10-7 in the first set. The Beach bounced back to tie the score at 10. The teams played to five ties, including a 15-15 score where LBSU posted three consecutive points, capped off by Hershtynovich's sixth kill of the set. CSUN took a timeout. The teams each scored twice out of the timeout.

Trailing 22-18, The Matadors scored two consecutive points before Moni Nikolov's kill created a 23-20 advantage. Joao Avila responded with a kill. Skylar Varga won a battle at the net to give Long Beach State three set points. Stilian Delibosov kept the Matadors going with a kill. He committed an error back on serve, resulting in a Beach 25-22 set victory.

The Beach connected on six of their first seven attack attempts in set two. Behind the hot hitting, Long Beach State jumped out to a 6-2 lead that forced CSUN into a timeout. LBSU pushed the advantage to 12-5 as the Matadors took their second timeout.

CSUN battled the Beach, scoring three of the following four points. A Matadors' service error halted CSUN's momentum. LBSU went on a 6-2 run, extending the lead to 19-10. Long Beach State hit .632 (12-0-19) to take a 2-0 lead 25-15.

Serving was crucial early in the third set. At one point, the teams committed four consecutive service errors before a Skyler Varga kill put LBSU up 9-8. Nikolov followed with a back-to-back service ace, resulting in a CSUN timeout, with CSUN trailing 11-8.

The Matadors fought back as a pair of Lorenzo Bertozzi kills capped off a spurt that closed the LBSU lead to 15-14. The Beach challenged the second kill in the sequence. The challenge was successful as the call was overturned, making it 16-13. CSUN returned to Bertozzi, who recorded a kill off a Long Beach State block attempt. Bertozzi's service attempt resulted in a side-out for the Beach.
CSUN's Jalen Phillips committed an attack error followed by a Hershtynovich kill. The Beach reached 20 on a triple block from Hershtynovich, Nato Dickinson, and Skyler Varga.

Four consecutive service errors created a 22-17 LBSU score. The Beach reached match point at 24-20 when CSUN committed a service error. A Phillips' kill staved off one match point, but a Donovan Constable service error resulted in Long Beach State's 25-20 victory.

Behind Hershtynovich's career-best hitting percentage, The Beach hit .530 for the match, recording 38 kills against three errors in 52 attempts. Hershtynovich recorded 14 kills in 19 attempts with no hitting errors.

Nikolov recorded 23 assists and seven digs. The Beach setter added four service aces and was 6-for-6 in hitting attempts. Bertozzi and Phillips led CSUN (13-3) with 12 kills. Running the Matadors' offense, Constable tallied 31 assists and three service aces.

Long Beach State (15-0, 1-0 Big West) returns home Friday to host Sacred Heart (3-9). Coverage on ESPN+ begins at 7 p.m.

~LongBeachBuilt~